4 notes &
FEW industries have worse labour relations than American professional sports. On September 15th the owners of the National Hockey League locked out their players, after failing to agree on a new contract. Fans howled that the entire 2012-13 ice hockey season might be lost, as it was in 2004-05. This is the fourth NHL lockout or strike since 1992, and follows lockouts by owners of teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) in 2011.
The hockey tiff is about money. Players refuse to accept a cap on salaries of 47% of revenues, down from 57%. Owners say the cap is needed to help weaker teams compete. Hockey has the widest income disparity of the “big four” of American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey; each NHL team depends mostly on cash it generates locally. In the NFL, far more revenues are pooled. This prevents a few super-rich teams from dominating and (in theory) makes the game more exciting.
When muscular millionaires (the players) fight brash billionaires (the owners), neither side will crumple easily. All are alpha males; most can forgo income for a long time. So the lockout could drag on.
SOURCE: Economist
